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["Toni Hawryluk" <tonihawr AT msn.com>]

http://moneycentral.msn.com/content/Savinganddebt/Savemoney/P101309.asp?GT1=5854<http://moneycentral.msn.com/content/Savinganddebt/Savemoney/P101309.asp?GT1=5854>

 

4 ways to simplify your life and save

 

also check : http://www.frugalvillage.com/

 

Tips on saving money are easy to find. But what it really comes down to is 
taking a hard look at your priorities -- and simplifying your life.



Editor's note: Columnist MP Dunleavey and six other women have come together 
online to strip away the myths surrounding money, speak frankly about their 
finances and liberate themselves from debt. Follow the quest for financial 
fabulousness of these "Women in Red" every other Monday in Dunleavey's column 
on MSN Money.

So you want to save money. Join the line. Finding new, smart, creative 
savings strategies is the quest of every overspent American, as the Women in 
Red<http://moneycentral.msn.com/content/SavingandDebt/P88977.asp> can tell 
you.

The thing is, saving has become like dieting. There are a zillion books, 
tapes, articles, Web sites and celebrity exercise videos out there to tell 
you how to lose weight -- ditto for how to save. 

Alas, most people have seen the same tips a thousand times: 

  a.. Live on less than you earn. 
  b.. Track your spending so you can see where your money goes. 
  c.. Never buy anything new. 
  d.. Whenever possible, slaughter your own livestock, etc.

Beth becomes a tightwad
Now, I'm not pooh-poohing the canon of classic savings strategies. There's a 
lot of terrific advice on this topic, much of it here on good ol' MSN Money. 


Beth herself recently acquired a copy of what many consider to be the Bible 
on how to live on less: "The Tightwad 
Gazette<http://shopping.msn.com/search/detail.aspx?pcId=14552&prodId=219364&ptnrid=18&ptnrdata=1104041129>,"
 by Amy Dacyczyn. Dacyczyn (pronounced "decision") wrote a series of 
newsletters on frugality a few years back that have since become books -- and 
inspired a cult following of frugal-minded folks.  

 

(At last--the long-awaited complete compendium  of tightwad tips for fabulous 
frugal living!  In a newsletter published from May 1990 to December 1996 as 
well as in three enormously successful books, Amy Dacyczyn established 
herself as the expert of economy. Now The Complete Tightwad Gazette brings 
together all of her best ideas and thriftiest thinking into one volume, along 
with new articles never published before in book format. Dacyczyn describes 
this collection as "the book I wish I'd had when I began my adult life." 
Packed with humor, creativity, and insight, The Complete Tightwad Gazette 
includes hundreds of tips and topics, such as:  , Travel for tightwads, How 
to transform old blue jeans into potholders and quilts, Ten painless ways to 
save $100 this year, Picture-framing for pennies, A comparison of painting 
versus re-siding your house, Halloween costumes from scrounged materials, 
Thrifty window treatments, Ways to dry up dry-cleaning costs, Inexpensive 
gifts ..)

Beth didn't intend to become a tightwadder, as TWG devotees are sometimes 
called. She just wanted to save enough to take a week's vacation with her 
husband sometime next spring. "But I read the whole book, cover to cover, in 
just a couple of days," she says.

Do-it-yourself thrift
The TWG philosophy is all about saving money by doing it yourself. Which is 
not everyone's shot of espresso -- but it works.

Dacyczyn herself, a stay-at-home mom with six kids, says her family saved 
$49,000 in less than seven years -- on an income of less than $30,000. (And 
when you read that she not only compared the price of microwave popcorn to 
the non-packaged variety, but timed microwave vs. air-popping to factor in 
efficiency, you can believe it.)


Three weeks into her TWG adventure, Beth is already saving money by finding 
cheaper alternatives to household staples. For example: 

  1.. Cleaners: A spray bottle of Clorox brand multi-cleaner is $4.99, 
according to the one under my sink. Not only is all the chemical garbage in 
those cleansers unnecessary, a homemade clone can be made for pennies. Beth 
made a faux Windex out of vinegar, ammonia, rubbing alcohol, water and blue 
food dye for about 35 cents. "If you use a lot of Windex like we do, you can 
save a lot this way," Beth says. (Never mix your own cleaners without a 
tried-and-true "recipe," though. Mixing chlorine bleach and ammonia, for 
example, can produce deadly chlorine gas.) 
  2.. Mixes: Most pre-packaged mixes (for rice, pastas, cakes, pancakes or 
beverages) are heinously marked up. "Because I drink a lot of cocoa in the 
winter," Beth says, "I decided to make my own." Dry milk, the primary 
ingredient in most store cocoas, is only $1 a pound. Beth estimates that her 
homemade mix will cut her cocoa bill in half. 
  3.. Buying in bulk: In doing their 60% Solution 
budget<http://moneycentral.msn.com/content/Savinganddebt/Savemoney/%20/content/Savinganddebt/Learntobudget/P36153.asp>,
 Beth and her husband realized they could spend way less on groceries -- if 
they shopped at a cheaper store! Now, thanks to TWG, they are also buying 
staples in bulk. "It's amazing how much cheaper things are when you don't pay 
for all that packaging and advertising."
 

Frugality is not for everyone
People love to make fun of "tightwaddism." When I called Barnes & Noble to 
see if they had a copy of the TWG, the clerk paused, "Shouldn't you borrow it 
from the library?" Ha ha.

Still, TWG endures because the whole saving strategy is based on a few 
principles that anyone can implement right away. 

  1.. Don't pay for anything if you can make or fix it yourself. 
  2.. Prolong the life of whatever you own. 
  3.. Use less. 
  4.. Think creatively. The answer doesn't have to be "buy a new one." 
  5.. Don't toss anything if it can be reused or recycled somehow.
These are tried-and-true, pioneer values that you could do now (make that 
sandwich wrap into an origami Christmas ornament, will ya?). But the real 
problem with most savings strategies, including TWG, is that if you really 
want to save money, you can't just look at ways to save. You have to look at 
your life.

Dacycyzn didn't have to do this. She was already living in rural Maine. The 
rest of us have to not only work at saving (and not spending), but shifting 
into a way of life that supports those measures. If you're keeping up with 
the Joneses, and going out with them too, it's hard to say, "Dom Perignon, 
pshaw! Let's order pizza and drink Kool-Aid."

Simplify and save, too
What Beth and I are both discovering is that your spending really begins to 
change when you rearrange your priorities to live a less expansive and 
expensive consumer lifestyle. "I just got grossed out by all the stuff we own 
but never use," she wrote to me in an e-mail, "as well as the size and amount 
of things we as Americans view as necessary."

Several years ago, Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin had the same revelations, 
and they wrote the book "Your Money or Your 
Life<http://shopping.msn.com/search/detail.aspx?pcId=12025&prodId=615668&ptnrid=18&ptnrdata=1104041129>."
 The goal of the book was to help people develop a new relationship with 
money, one that was based on leading a meaningful life, not owning a lot of 
stuff. 

Their book gave the rather quiet, Left-Coast-ish Voluntary Simplicity 
movement a sudden and widespread appeal. Dave Wampler, founder of the "Simple 
Living<http://simpleliving.net/>" network, says that when his Web site began 
in 1996, it got a few hundred visitors a month. "These days we get between 
three and nine thousand a day," he says. 

Even given how much more wired we are, that's a lot.

Simplicity is simply misunderestimated
A lot of people misunderstand the simplicity movement. "People associate 
simplicity with frugality, but that may or may not be," says Linda Breen 
Pierce, author of "Choosing 
Simplicity<http://shopping.msn.com/search/detail.aspx?pcId=14948&prodId=776615&ptnrid=18&ptnrdata=1104041129>."
  Still, the vast majority of people who simplify their lives end up spending 
less and wanting less." 

 

(Based on the author's three-year study of over 200 people from 40 states and 
eight countries, this is a delightful and rich blend of real-life profiles 
and guidelines on living a simpler life. Interwoven throughout the stories 
are the author's insights and lessons to guide those who want to explore 
simplicity and to sustain those who have already embarked on this journey. 
Also includes a 16-page Resource Guide with reviews of 42 books on 
simplicity, information on related web sites, organizations, simplicity study 
circles, workshops, newsletters and magazines.)   

Wampler agrees that it's possible to save money by simply being frugal and 
following TWG-type tips. "But along the way, you're probably going to 
experience a (life) shift, whether you were looking for it or not."

For those of us who have tried traditional savings strategies with limited 
results, I say take a more aggressive stance. If you really do want to save 
money, you'll be more successful in taking serious cost-cutting measures if 
you also adjust the way you live. 

4 ways to simplify your life

  1.. Slow down: "Spend 30 minutes a day in silence and solitude," says 
Pierce. "It will help your mind to relax, so you can shift from the 
"work-and-spend treadmill," she says, "and focus on what's most important to 
you." 
  2.. Clean up your act: Pierce recommends spending 15 minutes every day 
going through a closet, a shelf, a drawer, and getting rid of anything you 
don't need or cherish. "What's exciting is that once you start on these 
surface areas, weeding that out, the skills and mindset carry over to more 
complex areas like your work and relationships." 
  3.. Learn what is "enough": Many of us are turned off by ideas like 
simplifying or frugalizing our lives, Wampler says, "but it's really about 
transforming your life in a conscious and deliberate manner . . . determining 
what is enough in your life, so you can do more with less."
 And finally, both Pierce and Wampler say, get some support -- whether you're 
trying to save money or simplify or both. And I couldn't agree more. 

 With Americans $2 trillion deep in debt, you're far from alone in your 
desire to save money. Find a friend who can mock the infomercials that 
torture us all.